Do you have a story to share about how God has provided for you and your family? If so, e-mail me at karikoupon@gmail.com to be considered as a guest post.
Our story:
This story is nothing short of a miracle in our opinion and ALL the glory goes to our God and Savior Jesus for His grace and incredible blessing of our time, talent, and treasure.
My husband Peter and I met in January of 2008. It was love at first sight. I was finishing up my Bachelor's degree, and he was in his first year at Portland State University.
When we started dating, we thought it would be a good idea to wait to get married until after he graduated, but soon we realized that it would be “better to marry than to burn with passion.”
When we got married July 25, 2009, I had $17,000 in student loans that would increase to $25,000 over 10 years and about $1000 in credit card debt. He had no debt and was faithfully paying his way through school.
Here were our goals:
- Graduate
- Pay off my student loans
- Buy a house
- Have kids
Little did we know God had different plans for us.
Two months later, I got pregnant with our first son James (what a blessing!!!). I have hyperemesis gravitdarum during pregnancy (extreme nausea and vomiting for the ENTIRE pregnancy, although through diet and herbal supplements I am now in my 3rd pregnancy symptom free!!!), somehow I managed to continue teaching music. Peter was working at Southwest Bible Church and continuing his education. We managed to pay off my credit card during this time.
James was born on June 11, 2010, and I began my job working at home.
Here is how I can stay home:
- Peter got a second job working for KidzPad Furniture
- We came up with a realistic budget
- We don’t use credit cards
- We are a one car family
- We cut out most non-essentials
- We started renting from our church
- We live off love
Six months later I became pregnant with son #2. Jon was born August 19, 2011.
In February of 2012 we decided to follow Dave Ramsey's advice and pay off all of our debt! We used our tax return and money from savings to pay it off. That’s $21,000 paid off in less than 3 years, making less than $30,000 a year!! A savings of $4,000 in interest!
In May we found out I was expecting baby #3!
In June Peter graduated from Portland State University with his bachelor’s degree!
Looking back on our goals the past three years, we have to say thank you to God. Little did we know we would:
- Have two babies with a third on the way!
- Graduate debt free!
- Pay off $21,000 in debt!
We are very thankful for God’s mercy in our lives. We know that we do not deserve anything good from Him because of our sin, but He was RICH in mercy and gave His only Son for us so that we could have NEW LIFE in Jesus!!!
About me:
As a wife and mom, I want to save my family money so that we can be good stewards of what God has given us! My blog is dedicated to sharing what I am learning about saving money and other things of interest.
-Kari
Great work Kari! Very impressive, and congrats on baby #3!
Thanks Erika! We are very excited for sure. It is crazy how God's plan for us was so much better than our own thoughts or ideas.